Netanyahu Turned Down Regional Peace Initiative Last Year: Former US Officials

US Secretary of State John Kerry during a visit to the Middle East. (Photo: US State Department, file)

Israel’s prime minister turned down a regional peace initiative last year that was brokered by then-US secretary of state John Kerry, former US officials confirmed.

The revelation, first reported by the Haaretz daily, was in apparent contradiction to Benjamin Netanyahu’s stated goal of involving regional Arab powers in resolving Israel’s conflict with the Palestinians.

Netanyahu took part in a secret summit that Kerry organised in the southern Jordanian port city of Aqaba last February and included Jordan’s King Abdullah II and Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi.

According to two former Obama administration officials, Kerry proposed regional recognition of Israel as a Jewish state – a key Netanyahu demand – alongside a renewal of peace talks with the Palestinians with the support of the Arab countries.

Netanyahu rejected the offer, which would have required a significant pull-out from occupied land, saying he would not be able to garner enough support for it in his right-wing coalition government.

The initiative also appeared to be the basis of short-lived talks with moderate opposition leader Isaac Herzog to join the government, a plan that quickly unravelled when Netanyahu chose to bring in nationalist leader Avigdor Lieberman instead and appoint him defence minister.

Two former top aides to Kerry confirmed the meeting took place secretly on February 21, 2016.

According to the officials, Kerry tried to sweeten the 15-year-old “Arab Peace Initiative”, a Saudi-led plan that offered Israel peace with dozens of Arab and Muslim nations in return for a pull-out from territories captured in the 1967 Middle East war to make way for an independent Palestine.

Among the proposed changes were Arab recognition of Israel as the Jewish state, recognition of Jerusalem as a shared capital for Israelis and Palestinians, and softened language on the “right of return” of Palestinian refugees to lost properties in what is now Israel, the former officials said.

The officials, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were still not authorised to discuss the secret meeting publicly, said the Egyptian and Jordanian leaders reacted positively to the proposal, while Netanyahu refused to commit to anything beyond meetings with the Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.

One of the officials said the main purpose of the meeting was to start a regional peace process that Netanyahu said he wanted. However, he said it was not clear if the Arab states would have gone along with it either.

He said it appeared that Netanyahu was not interested in doing anything beyond meeting with the Palestinian president and some Arab leaders and promising unspecified confidence building steps.

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